Just asked for them because I'm on a kind of quest to find the fake RS PAB and based up on my own knowledge didn't have any luck so far.
I started to look for the fakes after talking to to a collector with more than 30 years of experience. He once took a look at my PAB collection and was amazed to find an RS with big mm in it.
Based upon what he knew he thought it was generaly accepted that these RS PAB's with big mm were fakes produced by the notorious Mr. Floch and sold by the thousands in buckets in the seventies and early eighties.
Personnaly I can't find anything wrong with these badges when comparing them to other RS marked PAB's in my collection but I also don't want to be naive.
Is there somebody who has more information on these RS PAB fakes that he would be willing to share with us.
Based up on my own info I know of the following RS variants that I accept as original
Buntmetall big mm wide pin (only ever seen one)
Zinc big mm needle pin
Zinc big mm wide pin
Zinc um wide pin
Zinc small mm needle pin
Not to insult the gentleman that has visited you (this is not directed at him and I do not know who he was) or other older collectors, but "30" years experience says it all for me. A lot of oldtime collectors were responsible, part of, or at least true believers of "rules" made in a time without internet exchange, forums, etc and just collector gossip and more or less bad books around.
The RS rule "all big letter RS marked badges are fakes" is one of them. A total rumour.
"Meybauer Para badges are fakes because they have two claws instead of three" is another one. While some of the old guys kept enough interest and intellect to update their old rules and came closer in touch with reality, others still feast on those rules and are in turn absultely blind for the new fakes, far more dangerous than what they encountered in the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties. With most of these they can miraculously find no fault.
Based upon my own knowledge and experience I tend to agree with you.
But I never met Mr Floch nor did I ever see his sales cataloge so I find it extremely difficult to imagin how good or bad his copies really were, certainly in the badge area. In the crosses department I know his work and although convincing not impossible to detect.
So for know I stick to what I think I know untill proven wrong.
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